The Freedom Trip

The story of a young girl's escape from North Korea, based on the life of the authors' mother, Soo Park.

“I am most grateful for two things: that I was born in North Korea, and that I escaped from North Korea.” - Yeonmi Park "One of the most harrowing stories I have ever heard - and one of the most inspiring." - The Bookseller “Park's remarkable and inspiring story shines a light on a country whose inhabitants live in misery beyond comprehension. Park's important memoir showcases the strength of the human spirit and one young woman's incredible determination to never be hungry again.” —Publishers Weekly In In Order to Live, Yeonmi Park shines a light not just into the darkest corners of life in North Korea, describing the deprivation and deception she endured and which millions of North Korean people continue to endure to this day, but also onto her own most painful and difficult memories. She tells with bravery and dignity for the first time the story of how she and her mother were betrayed and sold into sexual slavery in China and forced to suffer terrible psychological and physical hardship before they finally made their way to Seoul, South Korea—and to freedom. Park confronts her past with a startling resilience. In spite of everything, she has never stopped being proud of where she is from, and never stopped striving for a better life. Indeed, today she is a human rights activist working determinedly to bring attention to the oppression taking place in her home country. Park’s testimony is heartbreaking and unimaginable, but never without hope. This is the human spirit at its most indomitable.

Freedom Beyond Confinement examines the cultural history of African American travel and the lasting influence of travel on the imagination particularly of writers of literary fiction and nonfiction. Using the paradox of freedom and confinement to frame the ways travel represented both opportunity and restriction for African Americans, the book details the intimate connection between travel and imagination from post Reconstruction (ca. 1877) to the present. Analysing a range of sources from the black press and periodicals to literary fiction and nonfiction, the book charts the development of critical representation of travel from the foundational press and periodicals which offered African Americans crucial information on travel precautions and possibilities (notably during the era of Jim Crow) to the woefully understudied literary fiction that would later provide some of the most compelling and lasting portrayals of the freedoms and constraints African Americans associated with travel. Travel experiences (often challenging and vexed) provided the raw data with which writers produced images and ideas meaningful as they learned to navigate, negotiate and even challenge racialized and gendered impediments to their mobility. In their writings African Americans worked to realize a vision and state of freedom informed by those often difficult experiences of mobility. In telling this story, the book hopes to center literary fiction in studies of travel where fiction has largely remained absent.

Do "you" dream of traveling the world, and flying for "free"? The Freedom Project shows a new approach to travel as a lifestyle. Travel has countless benefits to all areas of life, and they are available to everyone. This book is the liberating blueprint for finding "freedom" and "happiness" in your traveling life. The Freedom Project explains, for the first time, the secrets of travel Wilko has used to explore the world, and fly for free: How to escape, and deal with what gets in the way of getting away. How to plan for travel, turning your dreams into goals, and plans into action. How to book travel and claim what's yours. How to prepare to leave, and find the purpose of being packed and ready to go. How to go to where you want to be, bridging the distance while still feeling connected. How to "be" at the destination, and live your traveling life feeling more alive. How to come home and take some of your traveling "self" to who you are at home.

The Negro Motorist Green Book was a groundbreaking guide that provided African American travelers with crucial information on safe places to stay, eat, and visit during the era of segregation in the United States. This essential resource, originally published from 1936 to 1966, offered a lifeline to black motorists navigating a deeply divided nation, helping them avoid the dangers and indignities of racism on the road. More than just a travel guide, The Negro Motorist Green Book stands as a powerful symbol of resilience and resistance in the face of oppression, offering a poignant glimpse into the challenges and triumphs of the African American experience in the 20th century.

Eunsun Kim was born in North Korea, one of the most secretive and oppressive countries in the modern world. As a child Eunsun loved her country...despite her school field trips to public executions, daily self-criticism sessions, and the increasing gnaw of hunger as the country-wide famine escalated. By the time she was eleven years old, Eunsun's father and grandparents had died of starvation, and Eunsun was in danger of the same. Finally, her mother decided to escape North Korea with Eunsun and her sister, not knowing that they were embarking on a journey that would take them nine long years to complete. Before finally reaching South Korea and freedom, Eunsun and her family would live homeless, fall into the hands of Chinese human traffickers, survive a North Korean labor camp, and cross the deserts of Mongolia on foot. Now, Eunsun is sharing her remarkable story to give voice to the tens of millions of North Koreans still suffering in silence. Told with grace and courage, her memoir is a riveting exposé of North Korea's totalitarian regime and, ultimately, a testament to the strength and resilience of the human spirit.

This book features illustrations, original documents, photographs and first-person narratives to give an account of slavery, the Civil War, and Reconstruction. Includes a time line (p. 118-119).

Weeks before her twenty-eighth birthday, Snow White Bui quit her job and left everything she had built in Los Angeles, California to recalibrate the direction of her life. She realized she had strayed from the person she'd once been-a young woman in pursuit of knowledge and wisdom-in favor of career success and being cool. Spurred by news of the shooting of black parishioners at a church in Charleston, South Carolina, she decided to embark on an improvised, solitary journey to learn more about the history and people of the US. With her passion project, LESSONS FOR LIFE PROJECT, as a driving intention, Snow White engaged with Americans across twenty-five states, asking them to share their biggest life lessons. Not only did she learn from Americans' diverse lived experiences, she also discovered the richness of life that comes from embracing the humanity in ourselves and in each other. THE FREEDOM TO WONDER is an inspiring story about an Asian American woman's journey to connect with the heart of America.

Based on the life of the author's mother, this is the story of her escape from North Korea.